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Communicative Tasks, Conversational Interaction and Linguistic Form: An Empirical Study of Thai 1
Author(s) -
McDonough Kim,
Mackey Alison
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
foreign language annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.258
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1944-9720
pISSN - 0015-718X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1944-9720.2000.tb00893.x
Subject(s) - focus (optics) , focus on form , linguistics , psychology , meaning (existential) , context (archaeology) , second language acquisition , foreign language , empirical research , linguistic description , computer science , grammar , pedagogy , paleontology , philosophy , physics , epistemology , optics , psychotherapist , biology
Second language acquisition (SLA) research suggests that some of the processes that occur during conversational interaction may facilitate second language learning. Carrying out communicative tasks designed to promote these processes can provide learners with the opportunity to focus on linguistic form in the context of meaning. Much of the SLA research on conversational interaction and communicative tasks has been carried out with the more commonly taught languages, such as English or Spanish. This article describes a series of communicative tasks designed for use by learners of Thai as a second or foreign language and reports on a study that tested the tasks' effectiveness at providing opportunities for learners to focus on linguistic form during conversational interaction. Finally, practical issues in the implementation of tasks in L2 classroom and research contexts are discussed.